In a cloud-based computing environment, a virtual machine image may be used as a template to create instances of virtual machines. The virtual machine image may contain a fixed state of one or more operating systems, as well as one or more software applications installed on the operating systems, such as databases, application servers and infrastructure applications, which each may be configured with appropriate default settings, so that the image can be used to quickly set up new computing instances. As enterprises in the cloud expand their services, the volume, variety and velocity at which data arrives increase drastically. As a result, virtual machine images may need frequent updating. Conventional systems might not be able to meet the challenges on virtual machine image management with efficiency, performance, seamlessness and scalability.